Legalize Prostitution?

Now, I don't mean legalizing it for underage runaways, girls trafficked from afar, or street walkers working to support a pimp and/or drug habit. I'm only talking about girls working for themselves or in a bordello where working is by choice. (I say "girls" but I recognize a small part of the business is done by males as well.)

I've already mentioned bordello girls, but that's not the end of the story. I'm also talking about such independents as escorts and the sensual masseuses who provide the famous "happy ending," once again recognizing that there are a few males engaging in such work as well.

Obviously there is a need or market niche. Why not let it be filled while at the same time redoubling our efforts to stamp out the sexual slavery?

Yes. Take Australia, where each state has its own laws that vary but on the whole prostitution is legal countrywide. It's liberalized but there are still strict regulations implemented on brothels. They are medically maintained and must meet certain standards and regulations and so on. This protects the hookers as well as the clients. This is the future.

What about an entrepreneurial escort who works out of her apartment? Is that simply two consenting adults or is it illegal? The way you describe it it sounds like the law might be organized around bordellos. Not every guy wants to pick out a girl in a quasi-public environment like the lobby of a bordello.

For legal reasons, I think a lot of countries define a brothel as 'two or more girls sharing an abode'. I don't see how the law could clamp down on an entrepreneurial escort. Here in Ireland, prostitution is legal, but all of the activities that go with it are not, such as soliciting on the street, operating a brothel and pimping. Try to figure that one out!

It's not illegal to visit an independent "escort" here - even though the dogs on the street know these escorts are hookers - it's almost impossible to prove it from a legal standpoint. You're probably aware, there are even websites and whole blog communities with discussions etc, where punters can leave reviews of hookers.

As you point out, customers can read and post reviews of providers on websites designed for that purpose. You left out that prostitutes use the internet as well to advertise and line up "dates." At least, that is the practice here in the states. Is that illegal as well in Ireland? I do understand why all the things you listed are illegal. It's to keep prostitution and evidence of it away from innocent children. I'm not saying I agree with it, just that I understand it.

I had to look up the word "punter" because the American meaning of the word doesn't mean anything. I'm not sure the UK meaning I found is very helpful. Define it for the American part of the TA group.

A punter is someone with money and hope and to a degree, has come to play the game. It is broadly used for gambling, but it has a place here for prostitution because the punter does not know exactly what he will gain, so the hope element still presides. Hope this helps.

Yea I meant the "figure that out" in a light-hearted way. No, the lining up of "dates" by hookers is not illegal because it's advertised as an escort or companionship service with no mention of sex. Yet we all know what goes on in these apartments. For that reason it would be almost impossible to prove in a court of law and not to mention a complete waste of police time.

And typically, 'punter' is colloquially used here for one who visits brothels. I've heard it used to describe gamblers too.

Not all women, of course, but there's a school of feminism that sees prostitution as exploitation of women. There are also sex-positive feminists who favor prostitution as long as the woman is in control. I don't know which school prevails here.

How do you define "girl"? The word is used many ways. When I used it, I meant a young woman not a 15 year old. Like modeling, it's mostly a young woman thing. A 45 year old woman doesn't fulfill most men's fantasies. I was speaking of legal adults 18+.

I've known some prostitutes. Mainly escorts who worked as what one would call a "freelancer" in any other profession. They didn't even work for a so-called escort service. They got their clients through online advertising and discreet referrals. None of the ones I knew experienced assault or rape, but they did speak of having clients with weird tastes. However, fulfilling weird fantasies is one of the reasons this sort of prostitute exists.

I also knew one who did high-end escorting. She started off doing modeling and noticed that some of the other models were driving Beamers and Porsches and wondered how they could have such nice cars on what she knew she and they were making doing modeling. One of them clued her in and took her under her wing. She did something unwise though and caught genital herpes, so her "career" lasted about two months during which her gigs earned her as much as $2000/night. She enjoyed being taken to nice restaurants and expensive shows. She also enjoyed having sex with rich and interesting men, too. Rarely did she have to do any serious acting, she told me.

She was 19 and was doing it for the money, but not out of greed or being obsessed with money. She was enrolled in a very expensive private college. I should add that she was a brilliant girl who spoke several foreign languages fluently and, the last I knew, was working toward a combined German and Business degree so that she could work in Europe. However, the last I knew she was teaching Yoga in Connecticut.

I find a lot of old school feminists have opinions on various things they have no direct experience of. When I read some of them talking about nudie bars, for example, it quickly becomes clear that their notion of what goes on in one is based on what they've seen in TV and the movies with men whooping and hollering and throwing their cowboy hats up in the air. In reality, the men in most nudie bars are very quiet.

The sex industry girls I knew thought of themselves as feminists because they felt they were in control of their lives and were on the receiving end of the cash transaction. This school of feminism goes under the general heading of "sex positive feminism." None of the ones I knew seemed to be using drugs beyond alcohol or marijuana, and no more than other girls of their generation not involved in any sex industry.

My experience with the world of escorts was in Portland, Oregon, which is very liberal about its sex industry. I was a photographer of nudes which is how I met nude models, exotic dancers, and escorts. Girls in one or the other of those categories often worked in one or both of the other ones as well. I knew that the way to earn their respect and confidence was to remain professional around them and not attempt to turn my relationships with them sexual, so many of them turned out to be friends and treated me as something of a confidant and even in some cases as a surrogate "dad" since many of them came from broken or toxic families with absentee or bad fathers.

BTW, the word "john" is used primarily, I believe, to describe the customers of streetwalkers, who are at the low end of the prostitution food chain. It's also been picked up by the media. Low end escorts tend to refer to their customers as "hobbyists." Expensive call girls (high end escorts) talk in terms of "clients." (These terms were in use in Portland anyway. There may be different local terminology in other cities.)